Certain treatments require the temporary or permanent interruption or modification of select nerve function. One example treatment is renal nerve ablation which is sometimes used to treat conditions related to congestive heart failure. The kidneys produce a sympathetic response to congestive heart failure, which, among other effects, increases the undesired retention of water and/or sodium. Ablating some of the nerves running to the kidneys reduces or eliminates this sympathetic function, which provides a corresponding reduction in the associated undesired symptoms.
Many nerves (and nervous tissue such as brain tissue), including renal nerves, run along the walls of or in close proximity to blood vessels and thus can be accessed intravascularly through the walls of the blood vessels. It is therefore desirable to provide for systems and methods for intravascular nerve modulation.